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The woman, an employee of a Tim Hortons coffee and donut chain in Toronto, gave a fussy toddler the tiny, 16-cent donut (called a "Timbit") to eat, and was promptly fired by her overzealous manager.The woman said she would have paid for the donut, but the store was busy and she had to work.
As soon as Tim Hortons' corporate offices heard of the firing, they quickly issued a statement that the firing was a mistake (it was implied that the woman was re-hired).
Seriously, though: who would want to go back and work for that maniac? Whatever happened to the customer coming first?
Hopefully, the woman will be able to get away from the boss with the anger management issues, and get a better job. Like at the local IHOP.
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5-09-2008 @3:02AM PAgent said... I never cease to be amazed at how petty some people can be.
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5-09-2008 @3:03AM Dan said... She got her job back:
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/05/08/timbit-lilliman.html
Sometimes, people take their power disproportionately seriously.
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5-09-2008 @3:03AM Jay said... It was London, not Toronto, big, big difference.
2 Hour difference.
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5-09-2008 @3:04AM Uly said... Not to put too fine a point on it, but if the kid doesn't pay for the doughnut they *aren't* a customer. They're just a kid with a free treat!
That said, I think giving over 16 cents of fried sugary goodness to a fussy child is a sensible business practice that can only make everybody happier.
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5-09-2008 @3:04AM BA said... This occurred in London, Ontario (my town!), not Toronto! Please correct this. Also, she got rehired at a different franchise.
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5-09-2008 @3:04AM bz said... My problem is with the mom thinking it's cool for her ELEVEN MONTH OLD to chew on a deep fried, sugared, transfat hunk of dough.
Seriously.
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5-09-2008 @3:04AM Ed said... Too stupid for words. Very smart move for Horton's to back off on this one. That's the sort of thing that pisses people (ie customers) off.
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5-09-2008 @3:05AM rainey said... When I was a kid I don't remember going into a shop with my mother and not coming away with something -- a lollipop, a cookie, a balloon, a slice of bologna. And it wasn't to shut me up because I was too shy to make a scene. It was just kindness and connection.
Where has that spirit gone?
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5-09-2008 @2:46AM doodoolemonque said... As someone who has owned a few retail stores, I have no problem with an employee giving a way a treat, as described. As a store owner, however, I would want to know if that employee had ascertained the parent's permission. Doing so without that permission, would likely be sufficient grounds for disciplinary action, though probably not termination. Were that child allergic to peanuts, as an example, and the employee gave the child a potentially deadly sample, the results would be my liability, and I would have to live with the consequences, both emotional and financial.
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5-09-2008 @3:05AM doodoolemonque said... The more I think about this, the more I wonder if the firing was not a result of the scenario I described above, and people are simply posting judgments without knowing the full facts. Just as people like to make snide comments about the "woman who sued McDonalds for millions when she spilled coffee in her own lap," when the facts are really quite different. Just wondering.
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5-09-2008 @10:08AM Melissa A. said... That's nuts. Tim Horton's was my first job. I hated it, but despite crappy managers, some people do like working at Tim's!
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5-09-2008 @10:08AM Daemon_of_Waffle said... I blame the victim.
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5-09-2008 @10:08AM rebecca said... As a manager that action is crazy, as a once a server at the "local IHOP" theses managers do not really have a grip either my third day on the job I spilled a cup of HOT chowder on myself and broke the bowl in the process the manager on the floor began screaming at me in front of the customers about I am going to bankrupt him and I better get it cleaned up. Sorry but they are all over.
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5-09-2008 @10:11AM ABT said... Amazing how this news has spread. In the morning I read it in a local news source. A few hours later I read an update somewhere but later I couldn't remember where so I did a Google News search and found 104 results. The media loves "single mom of four" (or similar) stories. Reuters picked it up. That's huge circulation for news about the firing over one Timbit.
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5-09-2008 @10:59AM Astin said... She DID get re-hired by Tim Hortons, but that it was at a DIFFERENT location. There are Tims all over Ontario, so even a new location shouldn't be much of an inconvenience for her. London's big enough that there's likely 2 down the road from each other.
Or maybe she can be moved two hours away to Toronto. I'm sure mistakes like that happen all the time, like confusing Los Angeles with Tijuana because they're so close to one another.
As for the commentor wondering if this is what it seems - it is. The manager's comment when approached was "We don't give away free items. It doesn't matter if it's a timbit..." Each Tim Hortons is an independently run franchise, so it's up to the local managers to set policy.
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5-10-2008 @5:47PM Adriane said... Pretty lame-- so you hand out a few [let alone one!] freebee that is very low cost: the goodwill and word-of-mouth publicity is brings can bring cash in tenfold.
At the gourmet market I used to work at we were constantly sampling, urging people to let us cut up one of the new fruits to try or, when the lines got long, breaking up cookies and dishing them out for patient line waiters. Happy customers are also the customers who return and BUY!
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5-17-2008 @1:22PM Shawn said... I have a feeling that they wanted to fire her for another reason, but couldn't so they used this as an excuse to.
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